According to the entertaining website dumbcriminalacts.com,
a 6 foot, 7 inch tall 500-pound man entered his local post office
planning robbery. Although easily recognized because of his unusual
stature, he approached the clerk, his next-door neighbor, and
demanded money. When the woman refused he pulled out a cucumber
and threatened her. He was arrested the same day.1

It's unfortunate that not all criminals are dumb enough to
identify themselves to their victims. If they were, we could catch
them all in the act, and even eliminate terrorism.

But since we can't, we should do the next best thing: use their
smarts to help us defend ourselves against them.

How so? Take the recent anthrax attacks through the U.S. mail.

Whoever committed the anthrax murders knew to mail the anthrax
letters anonymously. He didn't affix postage using a postage meter,
and he didn't apply for a special bulk or discount pre-sorted
mail permit. His mail was anonymous.

The infamous Unabomber did the same thing, killing and maiming
with bombs mailed with anonymous postage stamps. Again, no postage
meter indicia, no bulk mail permit numbers. Anonymous live stamps.

Right now, the U.S. Postal Service has a problem. Despite moving
quickly after September 11 to irradiate and otherwise secure the
mail, and asking the federal government for up to $5 billion extra2 for costs related to mail security, the
post office still can't guarantee that another anthrax or mail
bomb attack won't occur. The post office presently is in the unenviable
position of needing to secure 200 billion pieces3
of mail a year without the funds or the facilities to do it.4

Modestly, I have a partial solution: First, the Postal Service
should treat separately the anonymous (standard stamp) mail from
the mail with postage bearing identifying characteristics (such
as the I.D. number on postage meter indicias, or the I.D. code
carried on bulk mail) in the mail stream, and focus its expensive
security efforts on the anonymous mail.

After all, a criminal or terrorist smart enough to handle anthrax
will be smart enough not to mail the stuff through a postage meter,
right?

Second, provide marketplace incentives to encourage Americans
to use postage methods that identify the sender. For example,
the next time the post office raises the price of first class
mail, it could raise it a bit less for "secure postage."
That is, mail sent through a postage meter or mailed with postage
permits. For consumer convenience, this would include postage
purchased at home through one's own personal computer. The post
office also could sell, at a discount, special "secure stamps"
at its post offices. These secure stamps would be encoded with
serial numbers, or perhaps markings identifying the location and
date of purchase. The purchasers would be required to supply I.D.,
or perhaps they could be available for credit card purchase only.
Should one of these special secure stamps be used to mail anthrax
or a letter bomb, the post office would have a lead on the identity
of the mailer.

I can hear the complaints already from privacy advocates and
stamp collectors. People should be allowed to send anonymous mail,
they'll say. And postage meter marks aren't nearly as interesting
as a stamp of historic art, as meaningful as one honoring the
sacrifices of veterans or as fun as one commemorating vintage
baseball heroes. But anonymous mail would be unaffected. Those
who choose to send it simply would forgo a postage discount. Stamps
would continue to exist.

In fact, imagine the boon to stamp collectors. One could not
only save first edition plates of new stamps, but secure stamps
purchased at certain dates and times, or by certain persons -
such as stamps purchased by someone who later was elected President
of the United States. It could start a whole new category of desirable
collectives.

And, speaking of the President, this secure stamp idea could
help the Secret Service swiftly identify threatening letters to
the President.

Nice as that is, though, it's a side issue. The main benefits
of this idea are that it would help the post office secure the
mail without bankrupting itself and it would give the public a
financial incentive to send mail with secure postage. It also
would increase public confidence in the mail, which is important
to our economy.

Everybody wins. Except, maybe, really, really dumb criminals.

# # #

Amy Ridenour is President of The National Center for Public
Policy Research. Comments may be sent to [email protected].

Footnotes:

1 "I'll Get You With My Cucumber,"
Dumb Criminal Acts website, downloaded from http://www.dumbcriminalacts.com/robberies9.shtml
on February 28, 2002.
2 "Security of the Mail: Mail Security FAQs," U.S. Postal
Service website publication, downloaded from http://www.usps.com/news/2001/press/mailsecurity/allfaq.htm
on February 28, 2002.
3 "Work-Hour Reductions Lead Efforts to Control Costs, While
Revenues, Mail Volumes Decline," press release number 02-003,
U.S. Postal Service, Washington, DC,
January 8, 2002, downloaded from http://www.usps.com/news/2002/press/pr02_003.htm
on February 28, 2002.
4 "Battling on Many Fronts and with Finances Worsening, USPS
Remains Resolute," USPSNewsbreak, U.S. Postal Service, Washington,
DC, November 6, 2001, downloaded from http://www.usps.com/news/2001/press/pr01_1106finances.htm
on February 28, 2002.